The present invention relates to managing and preventing the accumulation of moisture within an exterior wall or roof of a building, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a drainage-promoting wrap, its method of manufacture, and a wall and/or roof assembly in which the wrap is used.
Moisture which accumulates within a building structure, such as an exterior wall or roof of a building, can prematurely deteriorate the building structure. It has been recommended to provide ventilation and/or drainage passageways within an exterior wall or roof of a building to prevent the accumulation of moisture. For example, openwork materials can be used in wall/roof assemblies to provide such passageways. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,099,627; 6,786,013; and 6,594,965.
It is conventional practice to cover inner sheathing members of a wall and/or roof with various types of building papers, tar papers, roofing felts, house-wrap materials, and the like to provide a weather barrier to help block the penetration of air and/or water into the building through an exterior wall or roof. House-wraps made of thermoplastic materials can be designed to permit moisture vapor to escape in an outward direction through the exterior wall or roof. Examples of thermoplastic house-wrap materials include TYPAR housewrap sold by BBA Fiberweb, and TYVEK housewrap sold by Dupont.
Various drainage-promoting weather barrier materials are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,390 issued to Sacks; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,131,353 and 6,804,922 B1 issued to Egan; U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,890 B1 issued to Tonyan; U.S. Pat. No. 6,355,333 B1 issued to Waggoner et al.; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,550,212 B2, 6,761,006 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,901 B2 issued to Lubker, II.
Although the drainage and/or ventilation mats, building papers, house-wraps, and composite materials disclosed in the above referenced patents may function satisfactorily for their intended purposes, there remains a need for an inexpensive and alternate drainage-promoting wrap that can be utilized in an exterior wall and/or roof assembly of a building to prevent moisture infiltration and to provide drainage paths and/or ventilation air spaces between an inner sheathing member and an exterior building material. Preferably, the wrap should permit ready installation requiring only a minimum of skill and should be capable of efficient and inexpensive manufacture.